Alaska Travel Industry Association: creating jobs, strengthening families, increasing revenue.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: Associations

Established in 2000, the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) is a relatively new organization. But to date, it has approximately 1,100 members--reportedly more than any other travel industry trade association in the United States. The association is an amalgamation of different factions.

"There were a number of different entities that were involved in tourism and promotion, so the theory was: let's consolidate and become more efficient," says President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Peck.

ATIA represents a very diverse group of members. Many of them are businesses that want to promote their products and services to potential Alaska visitors. These members typically advertise in the Official Alaska State Vacation Planner, Travel Alaska. corn or at various travel and consumer shows. There are also affiliate members who aren't looking to sell to visitors; they simply want to stay in front of Alaska businesses that service visitors. Other members of ATIA include community partners who want to see visitation grow in their area and tourism advocates that are interested in keeping abreast of the latest industry news.

MISSION OF ATIA

ATIA operates under an extremely focused mission statement: To develop Alaska's travel resource for the maximum benefit of Alaskans--creating jobs for Alaskans, strengthening Alaskan families and generating additional revenue for Alaska. Tourism planning also is an important element of the association's mission, which maintains "ATIA will be the leading industry organization promoting Alaska as a top visitor destination, communicating and promoting the Alaska tourism industry as one of the state's major economic forces, and will be the respected voice of the industry for the growth of the industry, while remaining attentive to care for the environment, recognition of cultures and Alaska's unique quality of life."

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Within its mission, ATIA has two broad objectives. One of them is to advocate important issues for its members, including land policy, regulatory and taxation matters. For example, ATIA is currently working to address a proposed plan for managing vehicles along the road that leads to Denali National Park and Preserve. Denali National Park--which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year--is a huge component of Alaska's visitor industry, says Peck, who wants to ensure the parks continued accessibility. "We want to make sure that we're good stewards of the park and that...